


pray return to the waking sands (Prompt 28 - Irenic)

by unmended



Series: FFXIVWrite2020 [28]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: #FFXIVWrite2020, Gen, Male Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Mentioned Scions of the Seventh Dawn (Final Fantasy XIV), Minor Character Death, Minor Violence, Named Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), The Waking Sands
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:27:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26724400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unmended/pseuds/unmended
Summary: It seems that all good things do come to an end, and that safety isn't as permanent as you'd like it to be(ARR MSQ Spoilers for 'All Good Things')(short fill for #FFXIVWrite2020)
Series: FFXIVWrite2020 [28]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1906036
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1
Collections: Emet-Selch's Wholesomely Debauched Bookclub FFXIV-Writes 2020 Collection





	pray return to the waking sands (Prompt 28 - Irenic)

* * *

His hand froze at the door handle. Something was off. The Echo was silent, disconcertingly so, but something was definitely wrong.  
  
The entryway was dark when he pushed open the door, and Tataru was nowhere to be found. Dread pooled in his stomach as he slipped quietly down the stairs to the second door.  
  
Nothing could have prepared him for what waited inside.

The rug leading into the hall was soaked with blood, walls splashed with it. J'mhazi's knees threaten to give out when he reaches the first of the bodies in the cross-hall (all dead, all dead, _all dead_ ) and he leans heavily against the wall, hurrying for the lounge and sliding his hand along the wall to steady himself.

The copper stench of blood upon pushing open the door was all that he needed know to confirm the worst. Before he realizes, he's on the floor, retching.  
  
Somewhat more composed after upending his lunch, he checks the bodies for survivors and finds not a single one among them. _A'aba...Haribehrt....Satzfloh...Percivains....Una..._

  
Panic starting to set in, he sprints to the solar.

Upended chairs, the rug torn and ripped, and... Noraxia - Noraxia!

J'mhazi drops to the ground and cradles the small sylph in his arms.

  
  
"...This one....is glad Walking One is safe..." Noraxia says weakly, and pats his arm with a small leafed hand.

  
  
"Shhh.. Sh..-" He starts, and is struck silent by a pain between his eyes, and the sound of a heart beating in the distance. His vision goes black, and he is somewhere else.

  
Outside of his own body, he witnesses the massacre of his fellow Scions. The Waking Sands, home to a group of people so focused on their own irenic goals that the didn't even question a stranger walking into their midst with a weapon until it was too late.  
  
The one in white calls for the man who slayed Ifrit and Titan. Calls for _him_.

Gunshot after gunshot, pike wound after pike wound, the white-clad commander faced down Minfillia in the solar. Noraxia, brave thing, rushes to her defense and is cast aside violently.

Innocents aren't spared, not here.

The survivors are taken, along with Minfillia. He can't see exactly how many are left alive, led off flanked by soldiers... And he is thrust out of the vision.

He comes back to himself with hot tears running down his face.

  
  
"...Walking one.... Minfillia asked this one to...." Noraxia groans. "At a church in eastern Thanalan...claim sanctuary. This one tried to... Tried to protect walking one ...Minfillia..."  
  


J'mhazi shakes his head. "You did all you could..." He says.

"For ..give...this one... Save..." They reach out a tiny hand, weakly, and it falls. They too fall silent.  
  


J'mhazi is struck by how cold they become, instantly. He gently places them back on the floor, and stands, shaking.

_This is...my fault_. He thinks bitterly. _I should have been here_.

  
  
He roughly wipes his face with his arm, and he runs out of the Waking Sands, not looking back.  
  
He runs until he can't smell copper anymore - runs until he can't breathe - until he can't think. When he can't run anymore, he collapses face up at the night sky.

Dizzy and exhausted, he whistles and Queenie answers for once, scratching at the ground beside him and nudging at him with her beak. He latches on to her harness and between the two of them he ends upright and seated. He pats her neck affectionately and she coos.

  
  
"Need to....get to Camp Drybone. Just north of it. C'n you do that for me?" J'mhazi murmurs.

  
  
She warbles lowly and takes off in the direction he was headed.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> J'mhazi made it to Coerthas so i'm rewarding myself by.... making myself sad again lmao  
> <3  
> "All Good Things" snuck up on me in the MSQ again and i was Not Prepared. its brutal!! actually!!!


End file.
